The principal characters on which these genera are founded reside in the presence or absence of scales, the presence or absence of eyes, the presence of one or of two series of teeth in the lower jaw, the structure of the tentacle (representing the so-called "balancers" of Urodele larvae) on the side of the snout, and the presence or absence of a vacuity between the parietal and squamosal bones of the skull.

Offshore balancers disagree with one another on how often this power must be used, and just how far offshore this power should and must be deployed; but we all agree that our hyperactive foreign policy leans too far in the direction of active intervention military or otherwise.